Spicer in 5th; Gambill Advances on first day of NCAA Indoor Championships

Spicer in 5th; Gambill Advances on first day of NCAA Indoor Championships

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Friday Heptathlon Results
FULL RESULTS

NAPERVILLE, IL — Alfred University junior Seth Spicer and Utica College junior Nicodemus Gambill highlighted the first day of action at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship meet. 
                
Spicer is currently in fifth place in the heptathlon as he scored 2,704 points Friday in the first four events, 108 behind the leader, Brent DiVittorio of Cortland.
                
Here's how Spicer fared in Friday's events: 60-meter dash (7.41 seconds, personal best); long jump (6.32 meters); shot put (13.03 meters, personal best); and high jump (1.84 meters, personal best). His toss in the shot put was tops in the field — nearly a half-meter better than the next best (Cortland's Jack Flood's 12.57 meters) — shattering his previous personal best of 12.68 meters, set in February at the Ithaca College Invitational.
                
The heptathlon concludes Saturday with three events: the 60-meter hurdles (10 a.m.), pole vault (11 a.m.), and 1,000-meter run (1:50 p.m.) Times listed are for the Central Time Zone, an hour behind Alfred.
                
Gambill has qualified for Saturday's finals in both the 60 meter and 200 meter dash after an impressive performance in preliminaries at the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships hosted by North Central College on Friday.  Gambill placed third overall (second in his heat) in the 60 meter dash prelims and broke his own school-record with a time of 6.82.  He followed that up with an eighth place overall finish (second in his heat) in the 200 meter dash prelims with a time of 22.08 to earn the final spot in Saturday's 200 meter dash finals. 

Gambill has guaranteed himself All-American in both the 60 meter and 200 meter dash and will now compete for the College's first national title in both events on Saturday.  The 60 meter dash finals go off at 3:55 p.m. on Saturday.  The 200 meter dash finals begin at 4:45 p.m. on Saturday. 

Gambill is making his fourth career appearance at nationals, including his second at indoor nationals.  He made his first career nationals appearance in 2015 at the outdoor championships where he took home 17th place in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.00.  He then made the 2016 Indoor Championships and placed 11th in the 60 meter (6.90) and was disqualified in the 200 meter for stepping outside of his lane assignment.  He made his third nationals appearance at the 2016 Outdoor Championships last Spring and placed third in the 100 meter with a time of 10.81 to earn his first career All-American honor and the College's top finish at an NCAA event in school-history.

Peter Girardi and Mark VanMarter of the St. John Fisher College men's indoor track and field team also competed on Friday.

Girardi was first to race in the early afternoon in the 60-meter hurdles where he took 9th place with a time of 8.28, just barley missing the qualifying mark for finals. The junior would also race in the 400-meter preliminary round placing 12thoverall at 49.52, where the top eight would qualify for finals on Saturday.

VanMarter competed in the long jump, where he took 15th with a best jump of 6.32 meters.